The Mark Gunning Team: Is the Open Kitchen Plan Falling out of Fashion?

A VERY popular design for homes over the past 50 years has been the “open kitchen floor plan.”

Having a “great room” kind of makes your home appear to be very room and big as there are typically no walls between the living room & dining niche/room if your home has one.

Flooring layouts “carve” out the breaks between the rooms where as kitchens typically have tile or sheet vinyl, living rooms have carpet and the dining niche goes back to tile or vinyl.

Decorative borders can adorn the transitions between tile and carpet and are very fashionable.

Though we now believe that the open kitchen has finally run out of style.

Why? Because we think people are craving a new design style to drive them to upgrade to a new home.

If you REALLY think about it, open kitchen/great room designs are how apartments are designed.

“Are you calling my home with the open kitchen a glorified apartment?” Well kind of…

But having an open floor plan makes sense especially if you have small kids and need to keep an eye on them as they play and run about through the day.

It is also great for entertaining as you can keep the conversation going as you run to the kitchen for more appetizers or drinks…

But now let’s look at a few reasons why having the open kitchen design is a burden.

Your kitchen must remain spotless when guests come over. If you are cooking a huge meal for a lot of people, having a pile of dishes is a little unsightly.
Plus, everybody now watches you as you load your dishwasher.
When your family is trying to watch TV in the living room area, the noise and smells from the kitchen are an annoyance.

Also that goes the other way for you having to watch, as your young kids watch the same kids program over and over again.

Might get a little old after a while.

So the bottom line is, if you are getting ready to buy a home, take a second look at the floor plan. If it is a great room and you don’t have small children, is it the best option for your family?

Moving to Phoenix?

Send us a quick message and we will roll out the red carpet for you when you come down to look at some homes.

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